vii probatio
by stanzas
Summary: the ground rumbles under their shoes and their sins seek themselves from the walls and swallow them whole ;; "bow to me or be destroyed, greece has fallen, rome obliterated, the age of the creator has come again" / done for Phoenix challenge Cup of Tea #4. Prompt: the plunge.


**summary**: the ground rumbles under their shoes and their sins seek themselves from the walls and swallow them whole ;; "bow to me or be destroyed, greece has fallen, rome obliterated, the age of the creator has come again"

**a/n**- vii (the roman numeral for seven) and probatio meaning (trials) ..hello friends, i have returned from writing hiatus! this fic was done in response to the challenge of "the plunge" (i kind of took inspiration from the demons prompt, but the ending makes more sense for the plunge challenge.) for_ phoenix awards cup of tea #4._ this fic gave me so much grief and trouble writing it i'm just going to post it and pretend it never happened. #liz out.

* * *

_**vii probatio**_

* * *

**W**hen the children were younger, they were told stories and old fairy tales about blue skies, rain clouds, and a dazzling sun with a god on a chariot riding over their heads. Most of these stories were considered untrue; grass wasn't green, the darkness over their heads never faded, and what in the name of the gods was _rain_? It was all very mysterious to them, as easy to be believed when younger in things like _Santa Claus_ or the _Easter bunny_; distant things, childish fantasies. Things that didn't actually exist.

This is the end of the world. Nothing like that mattered anymore. It hadn't for a long time.

_They_ knew darkness and stone passageways, deep underground in places where nobody would find them. Runes covered every wall, under strict orders not to disturb them.

An old woman with grimy grey hair sat in the corner, rocking quietly. She was covered in soot, as were most of the people around her. Perfectly silent. Never letting her eyes leave the walls, as if looking away would allow them to take action and smother them all.

Everest was the oldest of the children. Her eyes were always shadowed, looking down at her feet to keep herself from tripping over the forms of her people or loose rocks that had given way from the ground. Her only friend, Serena, told her with solemn sincerity on the chance occasion that light filtered through the rocks that her eyes were blue. She wondered what color _blue_ was.

The other children were only a few months younger, but the youngest was Jaime, who was just twelve. He still played with the seedlings that grew between the cracks in the walls, and laughed in the swelling quiet around the caves. The old woman watched him even more than the rest.

Everest turned sixteen, and the council summoned her. They didn't tell her why or what they had planned. Her steps trembled minutely as she stepped on the centerpiece of the great hall, the stalagmites hanging from the walls seemed even more piercing and judging from their perches on the ceilings. It felt like waiting for the walls to fall, to be crushed under all the rock and be trapped beneath forever. The silence was even more pressing, bouncing off the walls and lodging an uncomfortable lump of terror in the base of her throat despite her bitter hope this would just be a social calling.

It wasn't.

"_You're going to save the world._" the council said. There was something strange about that sentence in itself, not because of their decision to place the duty of saving an entire planet on a young child - but the fact there was even a place left saving.

"How_?_" she asked, instead of "_why me? why now? what world is there to save?_" Duty came first. She'd been taught that as a child. Duty kept everyone else alive. Order kept balance and balance meant no accidents. It was a calculated, orchestrated harmony that she needed to keep playing a part in.

Her question caused the room to go silent. The solemn faces of the elders peered down at her from the stone pillars they were seated in, and she suddenly felt incredibly small. A child being told to enter the arena, sentenced to death. Her throat tightened and the eyes of the council only peered down sadly, almost with pity, as if they knew the fate of what they were assigning her. She asked again, without the quaver of her voice that had filtered into her voice the first time despite her efforts to sound fearless. Her mother's voice seemed to give her confidence in her own mind. _You are Everest_, she said. N_amed after the tallest and proudest mountain to grow on this earth. You were named for this mountain, to give you the strength of those rocks and the abovelands_. "How?"

They told her.

* * *

She chose Walker, Serena, Jaime, Laura, Venia, and Bullwinkle. They were the only children old enough to join the group, so there wasn't many choices.

Serena walked next to her, which was a comfort to ease her swelling nausea in her stomach. The council's instructions rattled around in her mind like loose rock fallings._ Take six others with you. Leave this place at darklight. Run until you reach the brightlight. Do not return until you have completed your mission. Remember your training._

"Where are we going?" Jaime asked again. He'd asked the question from the moment they'd left the cave walls and the rocks had started to become looser, almost sandy and causing the group to slip on almost every step. The channels of rock only seemed to head upwards, on a steep incline that was almost impossible to find proper footing on. The ceilings closed in tighter around the group, and despite living underground for her entire life, she began to fear the walls closing in around her and tightening around her and making it harder to breathe. She shook her head. Now she was just imagining things.

_Like the crisp scent of the air?_ The twangy smell of _life_ that had filled the space between her breaths. Clear and fresh. Which meant abovelands were close.

Light shone through the rocks ahead, to a clearing where the rocks no longer shrouded them from sight. Everest stepped into the light first. She flinched away from the ball of fire that was hanging from the ceiling, almost blinding as the darklight in the caves.

Serena looked even more pale than her in the light. Her eyes were silver, her pupils shrunk to almost pinpricks because of the excess light. Soot and dark smudges covered most of her ashen face, traced curves over the bridge of her nose, under her eyes, under the edges of her prominent cheekbones in the lighting. A sudden awareness of their state of dirtiness overwhelmed her. It seemed to occur to the others as well, an exposed, filthy stench that clung to their clothes. Had they always been this dirty?

"The Sun," Jaime whispered, almost in awe. "I've heard so many stories..."

"Doesn't look like anything special to me," Bullwinkle muttered. "Just a great big ball 'o fire. Not any different from the caves." He peered around at the green vegetation around them, how it didn't cross over the rocks into the caves as though the ground had been cursed from live to thrive upon it. "These look funny compar'd to the stuff back home." He kicked a bramble - bush? small tree? - cautiously with the edge of his foot. His toe shrunk back from where it had made contact with the leaves.

"jus' feels weird," he kept muttering. "unreal. Unreal."

"Let's keep moving," Everest said, because the trees and the clouds and the sky and - everything - unnerved her. It was like 'winkle had said; _unreal_, _unreal_. They were out in the open. Exposed. Every instinct in her craved the safety of the caves, cloaked in darkness from a light they'd never known.

"Which way are we heading?" Serena asked, quietly from somewhere near her shoulder.

Everest only shook her head. "It's better we keep walking." They needed to get farther away from the entrance, find shelter, prepare for darklight. She needed to keep her focus on the mission, not to be awed by their surroundings that drew them away from the task at hand. "We'll head towards the brightlight, towards the mountains. I'll explain more tomorrow."

Six obedient little children plodded carefully behind her, stroking the vegetation they passed and staring mindlessly at the sky. Everest kept her eyes trained ahead. She couldn't find the spirit to enjoy the scenery like the others could. The weight of the council's words weighed heavy somewhere in her chest, and each step was a reminder. She remembered the unsmiling faces of the elders, the grave presence that they knew the fate of their quest and the stakes if they failed.

Somehow, she didn't sleep well after the brightlight had faded and darkness swallowed them again; almost a tortuous reminder that they wouldn't be returning to the familiar shadows of the caves.

* * *

Her feet were blistered from walking by the time they reached the base of the mountain. Everest craned her neck to the top, where the Sun was almost entirely shadowed by the massive force it contained. The area surrounding the mountain was scorched to the very dirt, where not even the plants dared to cross into the accursed earth. She wondered if this is what the mountain she was named for look like, standing firm and strong and unmovable.

_You can change my surroundings_, the mountain seemed to say. _You can not change me._

More than ever since leaving the caves, she wished she was a mountain herself.

Serena had been quiet as they walked. "I just don't understand why the council would send us out _now_, of all times." she repeated, as if saying it enough would reveal some hidden code to answer all their questions.

"It's Fate," Walker said. His dark eyes glinted like flint in the strong light. "My grandmother-"

"Nobody cares about your ruddy parentage," Bullwinkle interrupted. "It doesn't _matter_ here. We're all going to die here anyways, it don't matter where your parents were from."

"Shut up!" Everest silenced them. "I'm in charge here. If I say we run, then we run. If I say climb, you climb. If I say no fighting, then _no fighting._ We're depending on one another to survive. This isn't the time to settle petty grudges." Her blue eyes trained to the snow capped peak at the top of the mountain. "We should start now, hopefully find shelter as we climb."

Venia followed her eyes to the top of the mountain. "I doubt we make it that far," she said, and the words settled ominously and weighted in the group.

* * *

Her prediction had been right; rather than reaching their way a quarter up the mountain, they were attacked by walking piles of snow. Laura had nearly fallen off her perch and had scraped her arm, but they managed to reach an incline and avalanche the snow piles off the side of the mountain.

"You think they'll be back?" Serena asked, when no one else dared ask the question they were all aware of, in fear of the answer being less than they hoped.

"Yes," Everest admitted. "We better hope we climb faster than they can."

They kept climbing. Everest's arms were sore. Jaime was falling behind from the group, and Laura kept hanging back with him to make sure he would be able to keep up.

They stopped for the night, but barely any of them slept. The mountain was dangerous. Impossible. Unconquerable. They'd never reach the top. Their will to continue had been sapped in only a day of climbing.

* * *

In their minds, they wondered if they should have celebrated when they reached the side entrance into the mountain, which would lead them into the mountain. Everest stopped when they had all clambered inside, smiling lightly as though they had finished their task.

"Inside are the trials," she said. "the council has selected us to complete them. We just need to pass them to find the heart of the mountain and stab this-" she pulled a small bronze dagger out of her knapsack and twirled it almost thoughtlessly in her hand. "- into the stone."

"What happens if we do that?" Walker asked.

Her eyes turned steely and cold. "Does it matter? We were ordered to do something, and our people are counting on us to complete it. Unless you're turning to cowardice, Walker, and don't think you will be able to handle it. You can stay here and take your chances with the snow monsters."

He swallowed and stepped down. "I think I'll follow you, thanks."

"Good plan," Serena said, dryly. "Any other brilliant suggestions that you guys want to share?"

A solid "no" and "nope, thanks" echoed around. Serena smiled, but it wasn't a kind smile. Everest decided not to analyze that too closely, only because she had backed her decision. She needed all the support she could get for the next detail she was about to tell.

"We also need to get past the demons," she said.

"Demon_s_," Laura's face might have paled if the lighting allowed it. "As in, more than one."

"Yes." Everest agreed. "There are seven."

"Great. Even fight, then." Bullwinkle said. A twinge of color and hope reflected into his question "Do we get to choose which one we get to fight?"

"No." Everest said. "They decide for you. It's important that I explain to you this next part before we proceed." The shadows on her face seemed to darken under the faint glow of the white sun above their heads. "The story of the _first_ seven. The ones who failed."

"Is that why we live underground?" Jaime asked, and it suddenly occurred to her that he might be the smartest one in the group, despite his age and childish attitude. "Why the elders told us we needed to save the world?" The last part almost wasn't a question.

She couldn't lie to their faces. "It is."

"Why'd they fail, then?" Walker asked. "I thought the good guys were supposed to win."

"They lost," Serena said, her face twisted into a scowl. "it can't be much simpler than that."

Everest shook her head. "No, it's not so simple. They're still alive."

"They must be pretty old, then. They won't be doing much world saving anymore." Venia said. Her eyes looked molten red, almost glowing like dying embers in the darkness. "Unless they're hiding, and that's why they failed."

"Far from it." she said. "they're still very alive. They _are_ the Demons. Protectors of the mountain. The trials each of us are going to face. The snow outside was probably the goddess Khione, based on the stories the council told me. We're supposed to _save_ Olympus, and bring back the gods."

"Rubbish gods, if you ask me." Bullwinkle said. "They haven't done shit for us so far."

"They're gods," Jaime looked almost offended. "They shouldn't have to do anything for us."

"They were sent away," Serena's voice sounded distant. "because the original seven lost. They were turned into demons by Terra. _That's_ who were fighting. The earth."

The whole group glanced nervously at the rocks seated under them. "The whole earth?" Walker shook his head. "No wonder they lost."

"The council legends say there were very powerful," Everest said. An unspoken question passed from her mind and she was sure it passed to the others; _how will we ever defeat them?_

"It doesn't matter," Laura insisted. "We'll figure it out. We should rest, be ready for tomorrow's challenges." A murmur of agreements passed through the group.

Everest settled in next to Serena, and she caught her eyes when the others seemed to have drifted off. She took her hand, and a voiceless agreement passed between them, an understanding between their eyes. She squeezed her hand gently. Everest nodded. Turned over to face the wall, but didn't let go of her hand.

* * *

**W**alker woke up alone. It was no longer dark in the mountain's entrance. The spots where the others had been sleeping looked undisturbed, only missing the occupants.

"Guys?" He swallowed back the tension and fear building in his throat to shout. "Everest? Serena? Anyone?"

_"Hello, Walker."_

He spun around. A silver dagger visualized in his hand and he was grateful for the comfort of a weapon in his hand, not bothering to worry where it came from. "Show yourself."

A laugh. "_That would take all the fun out of it. Don't you want this to be fun?"_

"Not really," he growled quietly. "Where are my friends?"

"_Gone. Perhaps killed by my own friends...but you should be more worried about yourself, Walker."_ A dark shadow grew on the wall, rising and stretching like some great monster.

_"Will you fight me?" _it challenged.

"You're the demon," Walker guessed. "You're the trial I must face."

_"You must guess my name,"_ the demon taunted. His eyes glowed like blazing red spots in the darkness. _"only then will you face me."_

Walker's voice grew smaller. "You are the Shifter. The master of bows. My grandmother told me about you."

It's laughter bounced off the walls, cruel and filled with a malicious glee. _"I shall enjoy killing you, young demigod. Know you will die by the hand of The Beast, the one cursed by the gods. You have died in vain. Your war is lost. The Goddess rules this land now."_

A great beast awoke and bellowed. The walls shook, and crumbled.

* * *

**V**enia dodged from a rock that nearly crushed her. A yell that had run through the very stone had woken her, only to realize the cave was collapsing around her. She didn't know where her friends had disappeared to, if they had been taken, but she could assume it was nothing good. A curved, smooth handle slid into her palms. Her preferred weapon back at home when she trained. Somehow, the knowledge she was holding a weapon didn't do much to settle her unease.

"_Ah, darling Venia_." A smooth, rich voice seemed to fill the ringing silence as she dodged another rock. "_So young, so sweet. Your family will not miss your passing."_

"Face me, demon!" she cried, mustering all the bravery she could in one sentence.

_"Name me, and the fight you request will be yours."_

"You are the Siren, the voice in the wind that can not be ignored! The cry of a dove after the flood, the one to die by _my_ hand."

A short laugh. "_Your bravery exceeds your skill, demigod. Pride will not save you or your friends. The heroes before you learned that lesson well. It is I, who will teach it to you, now."_

* * *

**B**ullwinkle couldn't see farther than the ring of fire he was trapped in. A voice around his head taunted and laughed, asking him if he wanted to _play a game._

"You're the Dragon," his voice did not tremble despite his fear. "The raging fire of the west."

"_Ah, yes, it's been a while since I've gone by that old thing. Seems a little too old fashioned, don't you think?_" The flames climbed closer around him, reaching out to grasp him, almost teasingly. He flinched when they roared and only grew closer to his legs.

"_How do you wish to die, Rocky? Some say the world will end in fire...or you will, anyways. I don't rather like ice much myself. I like things a little heated._" The fire crackled as if to agree. Bullwinkle closed his eyes. He didn't want to see the faces of his friends, the council, knowing he'd failed. That hurt almost as much as the pyre lit around him, slowly crackling and destroying the only life he'd ever been given.

* * *

**L**aura trembled from under her rock. An eerie golden light swelled around the shadows, searching, seeking her.

"_Come out, come out_," a young girl's voice called out, someone maybe her own age, but twisted and filled with malignity.

"You are the Witch, the cursed Queen," Laura whispered. "I can defeat you. I _can_ fight you."

"_You might, but you will lose._" She could almost feel the demon smile. Her eyes seemed to glitter like the precious stones that were climbing the walls, and the dark smoke that was wrapped around the ceiling, still seeking her out. "_As have all the heroes before you. As I had. You will not win this fight, foolish girl."_

* * *

**J**aime ducked from being struck by a flash of light. The demon he was facing had already pretty much trashed the prison they were in; using a rapid flash of brilliant light that had blasted rocks into powder. He didn't want to get hit by one of those.

"_You can't avoid me forever,"_ the demon growled, hitting everything within reach of his sword as though impatient. "_You will be struck down as I had struck down Olympus, struck down The Warner, my own family destroyed by my own hands. You will join them, boy."_

"The Storm," Jaime whispered to himself. "The Bringer of Rain."

"_Rather the bringer of your Doom_," the demon swung a golden lance near his head and the air crackled with electricity. He yelped as a cold sword was pressed to his throat.

_"You have lost,_" the demon's eyes were blue, like Everest's, but filled with a kind of cruel malice of someone who was no longer human. "T_he Goddess will rule forever in this age."_

* * *

**S**erena supposed there were worse ways to die, like dying alone. She'd at least die with the crazy clever lady with a habit for letting her fall into traps and nearly off ledges. She didn't laugh, but only sighed when Serena regained her balance like she was disappointed in her success.

Then, there was Everest. The crazy demon's boyfriend was dealing with her, and she occasionally heard his roar and the clang of metal and Everest cursing in the names of plants that she'd learned in agriculture. That almost made her smile, except they were about to die.

She managed to distract the white-eyed demon and make her way to Everest. She grabbed her hand and bolted for the edge, where the edge dropped off into nothing. A single beam of light broke from the ceiling, at an angle where a large breathing, living, stone thrashed in the middle of the room. It was all very, symbolic, really.

"You have to jump," Everest told her. Serena just looked at her like she was out of her mind; maybe she was.

"I'll take the demons, you take this," she passed the dagger into her hands without argument. "There's no time to discuss this. You must be the one to defeat the Goddess. Go, my champion." she kissed her forehead, readjusted the grip on her golden sword with a grim set of her jaw filled with determination, and charged after the demon.

Serena swallowed, and looked down at the seemingly small weapon in her hands. All of their fates wrapped into one tiny instrument of destruction.

She jumped and broke the fall on her feet, which shattered from the height. She cried out and tried not to blackout as white spots danced in her eyes. Oh, gods of mercy, this was impossible. Every movement towards the spire just heightened the pain in her legs. Her hands pulled her across the room, scratching at the rocky surface until her nails were bleeding.

It seemed like a lifetime had passed by the time she reached the spire, and leaned heavily on the surface. Every breath seemed like an eternity of torture, and the dagger nearly slipped from her hands.

The two demons above were shouting something, most likely curses and taunts to Everest. She couldn't fail. Not now, with victory so close.

More shouts. More demons crawled through the walls. _The Storm. The Siren. The Witch. The Dragon. The Beast. The Destroyer. The Sagacious_. Everest cried out; Serena turned and saw her foot miss the edge when the destroyer shoved her into the adjourning wall. She fell. Serena was the one who screamed.

Where Everest hit the ground, she didn't move from where she'd fallen. Her blue eyes remained open, staring sightlessly skywards, her dark hair framed like a halo of some fallen angel around her face.

The sight was too much; Serena shouted and drove the dagger into the rock. Where she'd thought it would glance off the surface and skid away from her, it struck solid and dove down to the hilt. The sky tilted alarmingly sideways and the great cavern filled with screams. She turned only to face seven dangerous and incredibly pissed off demons. This, perhaps, wasn't her most thought out plan.

_"What have you done?"_ the siren shrieked. _"You will kill us all! You, and your friends!"_ The beast howled and growled, only adding to the chaos. The trials had won over them, but they had won in the end. Not that it would matter.

"Some things are worth dying for," Serena said. She looked over one last time at Everest. "However, this world is not one of them."

Her hand dropped from the spire. The demons howled. The cavern filled with the thunderous echo of falling rocks, and she could only foolishly wish her friends had somehow gotten out alive.

A break of quiet, stillness.  
Her hand did not move from where it had fallen. The demons had fallen silent.

Somewhere, everywhere, nowhere, the world returned to sleep and the people began to awaken.


End file.
